Pikeman's Pleasure
It was a fabulous weekend. We stayed over Friday night at Helen’s cottage, Windsong, which was as gorgeous as its name. Piers remarked that it was probably my idea of a cottage because it had a dishwasher & a washing machine and a T.V. It actually reminded me of a few retreat centres I’ve stayed at - lots of bedrooms, a few common rooms, and beautiful grounds to walk around. It was the first time that we’d been to the cottage and we were assigned a bedroom to ourselves. I alternated between missing the children and having so much fun without them. It was fun talking with a lot of people from the canton on Friday night. I haven’t been going to a lot of SCA stuff recently. Not out of choice, but rather timing - every time I am able to go to a canton activity, it either changes its time, changes its date, or gets canceled. So Friday was like making up for all of that in one fell swoop. It was both like being at a party and being on a spiritual retreat at the same time.
We were the first ones from the cottage at Pikeman’s. I forgot to send in feast reservations, so we wanted to get there early to get spots. It was a good thing we did get there early. Due to the new Baron and Baroness of Septentria wanting to pick a new baronial archery champion, they were holding the IKAC first thing in the day so that they could fit in some baronial novelty shoots.
I did so abysmally bad at shooting. I have completely regressed even from Late Winter Shoot and Bow Strings and Tall Tales. I just couldn’t get my form right and wasn’t shooting consistently, much less well. I need so much practice. Every time I go to an archery event, it makes me wish that our stupid archery range had never closed and it makes me jealous of Petrea Thule being the archery capital of Ealdormere while I’m stuck in the fencing capital of Ealdormere. They get a five hour weekly archery practice and we have two weekly fencing practices and I feel like the proverbial square peg.
Despite doing as badly as I did, Piers asked me if I was having fun and I could honestly say that I am. The only thing that made it worse was you-know-who. He looked through all the scores and kept commenting on how badly I was doing and how he was "not the one who sucked the most". In the end, I finished last and he finished second last. I don’t completely get him, as he did the same thing at Late Winter Shoot. I’m glad I make him feel better about himself, but the irony is that the really good shooters like Daffyd and Timothy Thatcher are nothing but encouraging to me and don’t make me feel bad at all, while he who can scrape together only 5-15 more points at an event than I can makes me want to slink away from the range before everyone realizes what a joke I am. Piers said to tell him to screw off, but I couldn’t. He’s being sent to Afghanistan this summer and I couldn’t say anything to him. I guess letting him feel superior to me was my little way of supporting our troops.
After the IKAC, I went inside for a while, and then looked at Freya’s fabric. I was good and didn’t buy anything. I have three rough totes full of unmade or undone sewing projects and I really need to work on those first. Having a huge fabric horde makes sense if you do sewing for others and have almost a little business on the side, but for personal use, what is the point in tying up money in fabric you could never possibly use. Duncan is going to sell off some of Naon’s fabric and trim horde, which shows what a lot of this hording really amounts to in the end.
I went back to the range for some novelty shoots. We did a fun one with foam packing circles from barrels. We were back at about 60 yards and they were all in front of the targets. You had to shoot amazingly high to try and get your arrow up and then landing through the circles. It was a completely different sensation than shooting straight horizontally for a target. Because I don’t have the upper body strength and am only using a 25 pound bow, mine were falling a little short of the targets while some of the really good archers were putting them over the net. In the end, I did as well as anyone and better than at least half of them. :)
It was lovely during the archery and then as everyone was packing up, it started to rain. Court was indoors in the hockey arena. It was the least picturesque court I’ve seen at Pikeman’s over the years, but probably the best one because of what was done. As Edouard and Domhnail were processing in, he was announced as “Edouard who is loyal to the Senators" and Genevieve de Rosse carried in a Senators jersey on a poll. I was pleasantly surprised. I have always admired Edouard for his commitment to authenticity, but it’s amusing to see how much fun he’s having in his fifth reign. Aelswitha received her AoA. Evan Quicktongue took over as Lawspeaker. Aelfwyn was made kingdom Earl Marshal (I wonder if she’s the first female earl marshal). She came up in the Senators jersey over her dress and Domhnail remarked “Well I see you are loyal to the king”. It was also nice to see Aelfwyn being playful. (And that night was the only time the Senators actually won a game - so maybe Edouard and Aelfwyn are their lucky charms.) When court was closed, Adrielle approached and begged a boon. Keja was invited to join the order of the Pelican. I think it was a real surprise to her given her reaction. I know there are people who can’t handle surprise and need to be told in advance, but honestly I think it’s more fun when it comes as a shock to the person.
My favourite part of court was seeing Tempus get his Orion. I could not believe that he did not have one. His scroll is the most beautiful scroll that I have ever seen. Piers and I have it at our house. Tempus was going directly to a party by bus and was trying to figure out what to do with it. He ultimately wanted it to go to Heather to be framed and so we offered to take it to Ottawa thus solving both problems. I want to photograph it before we give it to her. The artist, Liadin, worked in his hat, wallpaper, an igloo, and an egg with antlers (a hatching moose). We ate beside her at feast and she told me that her illumination philosophy is to try and do something personal to the person. It shouldn’t be a novel idea, but it is. Both of my scrolls have nothing to do with me and are of the “this is the time period I like so this is what you are getting” school of illumination. If I ever get another award, I wish she’d do it. Piers was somewhat inspired at feast about getting into illumination. There is no quota per year and you can even set restrictions. So, he could volunteer to do one scroll per year to start and ask if he could work on one for someone from Caldrithig or Skrael so that he could do something personal for them.
Feast was wonderful. Petrea Thule always does the best feasts. Melusine was the cook instead of Anne Tinker. The food was scrumptious, although it had no overall clever theme the way Anne’s feasts do. Piers loved the sausage and apple casserole and I’m supposed to email Evander to try and get the recipe. Normally, my philosophy of events is that when I pay site and feast, I’d better get change back from a $20. Pikeman’s cost me $20 exactly - but that was only because we also got lunch. Feast was a steal for what we got and the day was the best time I’ve spent at an event (other than Practicum which is more of a course day than an event)in ages.
The only bad part of the day was that the room was ridiculously hot, In keeping with the Crusade’s theme, I was in proper Norman - I wore Genevieve’s pink dress (there was some dispute among Helen and others as to whether it was or was not a bliaut) and an undertunic and (for the first time in years) a veil under my circlet. While we were waiting for court to start Piers and I had conversations about clothes and whose garb we really liked and where he might like to go with his garb in the future. Being 1360-1380 in Italy and having visited the holy land, he just has so much potential while still staying in persona- loose tunics and pants, cotehardies, and even some middle eastern garb.
We drove home stuffed from feast, contented, exhilarated, re-inspired about the SCA and rejuvenated from our 36 hour break from the children. Pikeman’s gave us a taste of what Pennsic normally does and you cannot give much higher praise than that for an event.
We were the first ones from the cottage at Pikeman’s. I forgot to send in feast reservations, so we wanted to get there early to get spots. It was a good thing we did get there early. Due to the new Baron and Baroness of Septentria wanting to pick a new baronial archery champion, they were holding the IKAC first thing in the day so that they could fit in some baronial novelty shoots.
I did so abysmally bad at shooting. I have completely regressed even from Late Winter Shoot and Bow Strings and Tall Tales. I just couldn’t get my form right and wasn’t shooting consistently, much less well. I need so much practice. Every time I go to an archery event, it makes me wish that our stupid archery range had never closed and it makes me jealous of Petrea Thule being the archery capital of Ealdormere while I’m stuck in the fencing capital of Ealdormere. They get a five hour weekly archery practice and we have two weekly fencing practices and I feel like the proverbial square peg.
Despite doing as badly as I did, Piers asked me if I was having fun and I could honestly say that I am. The only thing that made it worse was you-know-who. He looked through all the scores and kept commenting on how badly I was doing and how he was "not the one who sucked the most". In the end, I finished last and he finished second last. I don’t completely get him, as he did the same thing at Late Winter Shoot. I’m glad I make him feel better about himself, but the irony is that the really good shooters like Daffyd and Timothy Thatcher are nothing but encouraging to me and don’t make me feel bad at all, while he who can scrape together only 5-15 more points at an event than I can makes me want to slink away from the range before everyone realizes what a joke I am. Piers said to tell him to screw off, but I couldn’t. He’s being sent to Afghanistan this summer and I couldn’t say anything to him. I guess letting him feel superior to me was my little way of supporting our troops.
After the IKAC, I went inside for a while, and then looked at Freya’s fabric. I was good and didn’t buy anything. I have three rough totes full of unmade or undone sewing projects and I really need to work on those first. Having a huge fabric horde makes sense if you do sewing for others and have almost a little business on the side, but for personal use, what is the point in tying up money in fabric you could never possibly use. Duncan is going to sell off some of Naon’s fabric and trim horde, which shows what a lot of this hording really amounts to in the end.
I went back to the range for some novelty shoots. We did a fun one with foam packing circles from barrels. We were back at about 60 yards and they were all in front of the targets. You had to shoot amazingly high to try and get your arrow up and then landing through the circles. It was a completely different sensation than shooting straight horizontally for a target. Because I don’t have the upper body strength and am only using a 25 pound bow, mine were falling a little short of the targets while some of the really good archers were putting them over the net. In the end, I did as well as anyone and better than at least half of them. :)
It was lovely during the archery and then as everyone was packing up, it started to rain. Court was indoors in the hockey arena. It was the least picturesque court I’ve seen at Pikeman’s over the years, but probably the best one because of what was done. As Edouard and Domhnail were processing in, he was announced as “Edouard who is loyal to the Senators" and Genevieve de Rosse carried in a Senators jersey on a poll. I was pleasantly surprised. I have always admired Edouard for his commitment to authenticity, but it’s amusing to see how much fun he’s having in his fifth reign. Aelswitha received her AoA. Evan Quicktongue took over as Lawspeaker. Aelfwyn was made kingdom Earl Marshal (I wonder if she’s the first female earl marshal). She came up in the Senators jersey over her dress and Domhnail remarked “Well I see you are loyal to the king”. It was also nice to see Aelfwyn being playful. (And that night was the only time the Senators actually won a game - so maybe Edouard and Aelfwyn are their lucky charms.) When court was closed, Adrielle approached and begged a boon. Keja was invited to join the order of the Pelican. I think it was a real surprise to her given her reaction. I know there are people who can’t handle surprise and need to be told in advance, but honestly I think it’s more fun when it comes as a shock to the person.
My favourite part of court was seeing Tempus get his Orion. I could not believe that he did not have one. His scroll is the most beautiful scroll that I have ever seen. Piers and I have it at our house. Tempus was going directly to a party by bus and was trying to figure out what to do with it. He ultimately wanted it to go to Heather to be framed and so we offered to take it to Ottawa thus solving both problems. I want to photograph it before we give it to her. The artist, Liadin, worked in his hat, wallpaper, an igloo, and an egg with antlers (a hatching moose). We ate beside her at feast and she told me that her illumination philosophy is to try and do something personal to the person. It shouldn’t be a novel idea, but it is. Both of my scrolls have nothing to do with me and are of the “this is the time period I like so this is what you are getting” school of illumination. If I ever get another award, I wish she’d do it. Piers was somewhat inspired at feast about getting into illumination. There is no quota per year and you can even set restrictions. So, he could volunteer to do one scroll per year to start and ask if he could work on one for someone from Caldrithig or Skrael so that he could do something personal for them.
Feast was wonderful. Petrea Thule always does the best feasts. Melusine was the cook instead of Anne Tinker. The food was scrumptious, although it had no overall clever theme the way Anne’s feasts do. Piers loved the sausage and apple casserole and I’m supposed to email Evander to try and get the recipe. Normally, my philosophy of events is that when I pay site and feast, I’d better get change back from a $20. Pikeman’s cost me $20 exactly - but that was only because we also got lunch. Feast was a steal for what we got and the day was the best time I’ve spent at an event (other than Practicum which is more of a course day than an event)in ages.
The only bad part of the day was that the room was ridiculously hot, In keeping with the Crusade’s theme, I was in proper Norman - I wore Genevieve’s pink dress (there was some dispute among Helen and others as to whether it was or was not a bliaut) and an undertunic and (for the first time in years) a veil under my circlet. While we were waiting for court to start Piers and I had conversations about clothes and whose garb we really liked and where he might like to go with his garb in the future. Being 1360-1380 in Italy and having visited the holy land, he just has so much potential while still staying in persona- loose tunics and pants, cotehardies, and even some middle eastern garb.
We drove home stuffed from feast, contented, exhilarated, re-inspired about the SCA and rejuvenated from our 36 hour break from the children. Pikeman’s gave us a taste of what Pennsic normally does and you cannot give much higher praise than that for an event.